The call
by dantemalfoy
Summary: Jacob/Edward, Jacob/Bella. After Edward leaves Forks, it is Bella who takes care of Jacob, but feelings reassert themselves.


_**Warnings:** Angst, unhappy ending for one of the three._

* * *

Billy Black eyed shrewdly the slim woman sitting on the couch. "Bella, have you and Jacob talked about your engagement?"

"No, we haven't." Bella nervously rubbed her hands against the coarse fabric of her denims; finally, she admitted reluctantly, "Jacob still longs for… him."

Bella stood up and made her way to the window; she could glimpse the branches of the trees being whipped around by the wind. The pitter-patter of the raindrops against the glass made her uncomfortable as she splayed her hand on the peeling windowpane, her gaze following the drops of rain. The rivulets would briefly join as they ran down the glass, just like she and Jacob had fit together so well after Edward left Forks.

She walked towards Billy, but her foot tangled on the TV power cord and she almost fell onto Billy's lap. The Quileute grabbed her elbow to steady her and Bella blushed in mortification, nodding at him.

Bella felt more tired than usual when she recalled the trying days after Edward broke up with her, six months ago. He had claimed he was doing it to save her life but two weeks later, on the way to Forks Community Hospital, Bella had seen him and Jacob making out in the Volvo.

She had called Alice but the elfin vampire was unaware of this development. It was Emmett who told her Edward and Jacob were a couple. The hunky vampire had smiled warmly as he recounted the easy friendship he struck with Jacob. The two men had sports and games in common and Emmett waxed eloquent about Jacob's warm nature, without realizing that Bella was barely containing her tears.

It tore her apart but somehow, knowing that this time Jacob wouldn't be around to mend her broken heart, Bella found the strength to go on.

The seasons imperceptibly changed and Bella found a measure of contentment in caring for Charlie. She made plans with Renée because she wouldn't stay in Forks and watch as Edward and Jacob grew ever closer. But on the last weekend in July, Edward and his family suddenly vanished, leaving a heartbroken Jacob behind.

Bella sighed; the sound of the wind rattling the windows of Billy's house lulled her as she recalled the darkness in Jake's eyes that summer day she met him outside the supermarket.

* * *

oOoOo

"Bella, he… left me!" Jake had gasped as he wrapped his arms around his broad chest, rocking back and forth. "The house is empty; his phone disconnected like Emmett's."

"Maybe he will come back." Bella tilted down her chin to gaze at her bags filled with food and spices to fix dinner for her father. She gingerly stepped around Jake but stumbled on a large pebble; Jake's grip was the only thing that kept her from falling.

As she muttered her thanks, Bella realized she and Jacob had always been there to catch one another if the other fell. She had resigned herself to the loss of Edward but gazing up into Jake's crumpled face, she had an inkling of how much the Quileute boy ached inside; perhaps as much as she had when Edward left her. In her mind, Bella visualized the path she had to take: she would help Jacob heal so he would become once more the exuberant boy that so easily cheered her up, she would coax the sun out of the cloud of despair Jacob labored under.

Bella squared her shoulders while she maneuvered the bags onto her left hand, pushing Jake towards her trunk. "Come home with me, Jacob. I'll fix you a proper meal and we'll talk."

"Do you really mean it?" The tentativeness she heard in Jake's voice just about broke Bella's heart.

"I do, Jacob," she said firmly, tilting up her chin as she motioned with her free hand to the overcast sky. "Cheer up, the sun always comes back after the storm."

* * *

oOoOo

So Bella helped Jacob pick up the broken pieces of his life. It was a hard, slow task which they plodded through but it was worth it. When they would share a joke or remembrance, Jacob's eyes would light up and Bella's heart fluttered. The dormant attraction that lingered between Bella and Jacob was rekindled. Bella wasn't sure she should proceed further, knowing that Jake had an affair with her former fiancé. She wondered if it would work out in the end, but the warmth and love she saw in Jacob's eyes when he looked at her convinced her. She would try to make the best of it. Jacob became her boyfriend, but there was something missing.

When Jacob held her in his strong arms, fulfilling the fantasies Bella knew he harbored, she felt him withdrawing. Looking at Jacob's serious face, Bella felt the lightness that used to warm her so much lurking just beneath the sadness which still resisted her best efforts to dispel it. Jake's smile, which once would light up any room he entered, was forced now.

But she was nothing if not stubborn, and Bella persevered in her task. The past month, Jacob had begun to cheer up, becoming involved once more in pack business and life in the Reservation. Jacob was often pensive, though, and there was the unsettling way he dealt with the vampires…

* * *

oOoOo

Jake slammed shut the door of the shed and the sound startled Bella, yanking her from the past. She stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and went outside. Bella recoiled from the sting of the raindrops against her cheeks, the rain drenching her clothes and hair as she walked towards Jake. She grimaced at the squelching sound of her sneakers treading on the mud while she hurried, knowing she had to speak with Jake before he phased.

Bella raised her hand to her face and wheezed, "Jacob, are you going after the vampires?"

"Uh-huh." The Quileute turned to stare at her. Jacob's short hair was plastered to his skull and his russet skin appeared to shine in the eerie light that filtered down from above. "Going to hunt the new bloodsuckers!"

"Come on, Jacob," Bella said wearily, "please, don't lie to me!"

"What do you mean?"

"We talked about this the other day, remember?" Bella sighed and muttered low under her breath, "I blame myself because I shouldn't have told you that when I was in extreme danger, I saw … him."

Jacob gulped and shied away from her keen gaze. He looked around the place, noting the luxurious shade of green which surrounded them. It assaulted his senses and taunted him with visions of life and growth when Jake felt his heart drying up inside him. The woods looked like the ancient forest Edward told him about while Jake cuddled next to his cold lover on the summer beach.

Jacob shook his head to dispel the haunting memories; it angered him no end that the man to whom he gave his heart and body just disappeared one Sunday without even saying good-bye. Jake swiped his thumb across his cheek and then rubbed his face as the tears falling down from the corners of his eyelids mixed with raindrops.

He thought about how to answer Bella's question, knowing she was right. Jacob felt a relentless pull, a call that tugged painfully at his heartstrings. It made him seek release battling the leeches that ventured here because in the heat of combat Jacob found release; he felt his lost love near him.

Edward was a ghostly presence inside his mind that manifested itself only when the lust of battle made his blood rush through his veins and Jacob's heart was pumping with adrenaline. Jake would glimpse Edward's ghostly silhouette which looked at him with the golden eyes that haunted his dreams. He would forget the emptiness inside him for those scant seconds, so he eagerly sought to repeat the experience. If the leeches hurt Jacob, he got to see Edward in the dim twilight of the delirious visions caused by fever and morphine.

He couldn't ever say that to Bella; he refused to tell her he had purposefully aped her method of coping with Edward's absence. Jacob had tried desperately to find warmth in the girl who once starred in his dreams. It was a chore, though, because his mind was filled with visions of alabaster skin rubbing against his chest.

He noted the frown that marred her pretty face. The way Bella's thin lips were pursed in a severe line was very different from Edward's expressive mouth; his lips often curled in a lopsided smirk as he joked with Jacob or smiled at him.

Jacob squared his shoulders; he was a man that always took care of his loved ones so he would go through the motions of living until a bloodsucker finally put him out of this misery. And maybe, just maybe, he would get a glimpse of Edward before his body followed his already broken heart.

Jacob glanced at the stark landscape which mirrored the state of his soul. Then he looked at Bella, whose hair hung limply around her shoulders while the rain battered their bodies.

"Jacob, I promise I won't ever let you go," Bella said firmly, studying his face, "I will fight for you as long as I live."

Jacob lowered his chin and stared at the sodden grass. The words evoked bitter memories because they reminded him of what he promised Bella after the newborn attack. He couldn't help but feel that all his endeavors had proved futile, just as useless as Bella's.

He took a deep breath and hunched his shoulders as he thought that, in this strange triangle of theirs, Edward held the best cards. After all, he was the one Bella and Jacob pursued.

What he had done for Bella when she was but an empty shell had been repaid in spades. The woman in front of him had been nurturing and warm, gently prodding him to take care of himself, even cracking up awful jokes when Jake was particularly sad.

But the fact was that, although Jacob loved Bella dearly, he loved Edward much more. Bella wasn't the person that populated Jacob's dreams or the visage he longed to see when he faced death.

Nevertheless, he owed Bella this, so Jake smiled weakly at her as he walked towards her shivering body.

He cupped her cheek and tilted up her chin, leaning down to kiss her. Just before their lips met, Jacob felt the vibrations of his phone in his back pocket.

"Wait a sec, Bells," he said as the fished for the phone; lifting it, he glanced at the screen and shouted, "What the hell!"

"What is it,Jacob?" Bella said sharply.

Jake lifted his hand to forestall her questions and said into the phone, "Emmett, where the hell are you?"

"Jacob, we… Edward needs you!"

The Quileute frowned as he hefted the phone next to his ear. "What for? The damned leech left me!"

"It was his plan all along," said Emmett, "Alice had a vision of the Volturi in which someone told them… about Edward and you."

"What…?"

"Edward rushed to Volterra and made a deal with Aro. He would indenture himself…"

Bella cringed when Jake shouted into the phone, "The damned bloodsucker should've told me!"

"Calm down, wolf! Lemme explain."

Jake put his hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating madly against his ribs. He finally said, "Go on, Em."

"The Volturi made a deal with Edward. Aro told him the Volturi would allow him to be with you if Edward used his powers like a sort of… ambassador of the Court or something. It was supposed to be for one year."

"Why did you all leave?" Jake barked into the phone, glaring at the screen.

"Edward told us to go. He didn't want you finding out until he returned."

His heart soaring with a mix of joy and anger, Jake growled, "That stubborn asshole, when I see him I'll…"

"We don't have time, wolf. Alice had a vision; rogue vampires are going to kill Edward unless we save him. He's in some mountain in Asia, I forgot which one. Anyway…"

"Where are you?" said Jake. "You at home?"

"Yep, we are in the house. The private plane is refueling to cross the Pacific, leaves in three hours."

Jake scowled at the screen. "I'll save my damned leech and then I will tear Edward apart with my claws. Then I'll kiss the bastard and do it again until he learns!"

"Fine, Jacob, but hurry."

Jacob pocketed the phone; he turned to run but Bella's voice stopped him. "Jacob, don't leave me!

"Bella, I have to…"

"We could have the future to ourselves, Jacob!" Bella desperately rubbed her cold hands, her tears mixing freely with the raindrops as she sought to convince Jacob to stay. "Together we're so happy! We were doing so well until that phone call! Stay here!"

"I'm sorry, Bella… I have to go!"

Bella cried out, "Then kiss me one more time!"

"Can't, I have to hurry," Jacob said as he waved his arm with finality. Turning to face the copse of pines, he muttered under his breath, "Damned Edward! I'll make damn sure he grovels. A lot."

Wrapping her arms around herself, Bella watched Jacob running towards the trees and then phasing into a huge wolf. The russet fur rapidly merged with the shadows as the wolf leaped away from her. She broke into sobs while despair overwhelmed her. It seemed she had lived through this before and then Bella winced, remembering when she and Alice had pulled out of her driveway to go to Italy and rescue Edward. She knelt down, uncaring that the mud caked her jeans as she wept bitterly.

In her mind's eye, Bella recalled Jacob's handsome face twisted in agony and she knew, deep in her crumbling heart, exactly what he had felt that night.


End file.
